Abstract:The Kel Ajjer Touaregs of Djanet cultivate date palms in their oasis grove as practised elsewhere in the Sahara, but with one difference: subterfuge. This is not simple plant domestication in which humans deal with insensitive biological material shaped by generations of oasis dwellers, but a kind of interaction as in animal domestication; people use subterfuge so as not to clash with the temperament of the species, which shuns the sui generis smell of humans.